Tomayto, Tomahto

Aside from one or two ambiguous occupants of our markets' produce section, we are all pretty sure which are fruits and which are vegetables. Or we were until now. Because according to Wolfgang Stuppy, there is no such thing as a vegetable, botanically speaking. Stuppy should know. He is the research leader in Comparative Plant and Fungal Biology at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew & Wakehurst Place, in London. So, botanically speaking, then, what are potatoes? Tubers. Asparagus? Stems. Lettuces? Leaves. Broccoli? Inflorescences. So why do we call them vegetables? “Vegetable took on its current sense just a few centuries ago," explains Harold McGee in his book On Food and Cooking, "and essentially means a plant material that is neither fruit nor seed”: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150917-do-vegetables-really-exist